Ancient DNA Results: My True Ancestry - Locating Alemannic Bavarian Match 495 AD Male 40-60y/o

Hello - Today's history lesson has been quite interesting.  I uploaded my raw DNA (Ancestry) to My True Ancestry which is a site specializing in matching your DNA to ancient populations and DNA recovered from archaeological digs.  This sparked my interest right away.  I looked at my matches to individuals from these archeological sites, and I was surprised to see that many of them listed me as "Top 99%, 98% or 97% match of all users" - how exciting!  Some of them provided a drop down with more information, but most did not.  I could not see the title given to many of the matches since I was just using the report in the free account version (Commoner / Level 0).

I decided to explore the internet and see if I could find more information on any of these ancient peoples and their burial sites or cultures.  I picked Match # 17. Alemannic Bavaria - 495 AD - Genetic Distance - 9.944, Top 91% of all users.  This match had a drop down that provided some key information: Found in the graveyard at Straubing-Bajuwarentrasse (STR) which is located on the Danube river directly at the border of the former Roman province Raetia II.  Graves found here dating from the 5th -  7th century AD.  The individual I matched with was a 40-60 year old male.  He was buried with a belt, bag and vessel.

I came across plenty of amazing articles with really in-depth research, like this one: https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/suppl/2018/03/06/1719880115.DCSupplemental/pnas.1719880115.sapp.pdf.  Besides wishing I had gone into DNA research for a career (yet again) I learned a lot, and was especially surprised to see that some individuals buried at STR had artificially deformed skulls.  I claim to be no expert, so it was news to me that Europeans were artificially deforming skulls in this era.  When I think about manipulating skulls, I automatically go to the cultures mentioned on Ancient Aliens like those that are purported to be mimicking the Annunaki.  I didn't think that this would be found in the 5th - 7th century European necropole.  

Out of 819 graves, I highly doubt I will ever figure out which individual this was, unless maybe I pay for the upgraded reports in MTA.  I did, however, find some interesting facts to elaborate on this finding.  An article on Research Gate showed a really great schematic of how the bodies with deformed skulls were found, and what they were buried with.  Other articles, as well as this Facebook Group Merovinigians: The Once, The Present & Future Kings shared what the female combs that were buried looked like, which is really fascinating to me.  

I also found some other images frome the Straubling Bajuwarenstrasse graves.

While I didn't dive too deep into this search, I did try to find where this necropolis was located.  I wasn't able to find a specific location, and with more time I am sure I could figure it out.  

Really interesting tidbits I learned from some research articles are that it seems from the findings that females in these groups traveled more than males.  I would love to read more articles, but you know, eventually need to get up from the computer, so here are some of my links for future reading:

- Spatial Analysis / Grave Depth of Southern Germany Graves (Including STR): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352409X19306224

-This fascinating blog (Colourful Ancestories and Queer Digs: Keys and concerns of the grave matters conference) from 2018 mentions that individuals buried here were found with objects made from human bone, he believes it is confirmation of "amulet attribution" and at his conference a speaker was referring to these as "charms" as she could not assign a specific function.  I really loved what I was reading, and this individual seems to have the most fascinating career in the world, so I will surely come back to check this out, and more of his writings.

- I would also like to read this book cover-to-cover Local, Regional, and Ethnic Identities in Early Medieval Cemeteries in Bavaria - Susanne Hakenbeck (2011) 

If anyone has any tips on researching specific matches to ancient peoples on My True Ancestry, or any interesting finds & information regarding the Straubing-Bajuwarentrasse graves and excavation please feel free to reach out, I would love to discuss this with you!